Time To Move On (Couldn't Stay)
by BrokePerception
Summary: Story set directly after Cursed Child events. Hermione can't help but feel like maybe Ron and she weren't supposed to cross the line we they did and got together. / Implied HG/MM


A dark brow rose as the Hogwarts Headmistress eyed Hermione in the light of the lamp on her ornate wooden desk; since it was rather late already, the way it illuminate the younger woman's face made her look like one of the ghosts in the castle, her eyes red-strained and revealing the exhaustion she felt. Then again, it had been a rough few weeks, to put it mildly, with Albus Potter's little time adventures. Hermione felt like she had hardly made it home. Instead, as she did her best to deal as effectively as possible with the whole aftermath, she had often stayed late at the Ministry, until the early hours of the day. "Hermione, when did you last have a good night's sleep?" Minerva queried, visibly worried.

At this, Hermione sighed. She became incredibly aware of just how horrible she must look and ran a clammy hand over her face before she answered the question she knew had been posed with concern. "I... I'm afraid I don't even remember, but it must have definitely been before that whole Time-Turner situation," she admitted. She didn't know what made her tell her former Transfiguration professor the rest, but she assumed that exhaustion played a part, as well as those horrid thoughts she had been plagued with for two weeks now. "I can't say that I mind the long hours for now, though. Things haven't been the same between Ron and me, since Albus told us we aren't even together in some of the alternative universes he visited. He's been pushy, like he needs reassurance that I still believe in us, and I can't give him that. He won't see it, but Ron and I haven't been very happy in a long time - or, I haven't been happy. It just feels like it is a strange... confirmation, that maybe Ron and I weren't supposed to cross the line we did when we got together. I don't regret the children we had, or most of the marriage. I'm just no longer certain whether we were truly destined to be what we were."

It wasn't hard to tell Hermione carried a lot of guilt for the way she thought about her marriage, and Minerva felt the sudden need to reassure her. As she stood from her desk and crossed it, Hermione didn't notice it; she merely stared right ahead, into nothingness, as if telling Minerva had made all of it hit home in all the ways it hadn't before. The Headmistress knew that she wouldn't have repeated her doubts to Ginny or Luna or other friends, due to their respective relationships with Ronald. When the older woman laid a warm hand on her shoulder, Hermione Weasley seemed rather startled. "I can't tell you what to do, Hermione," she spoke, "but I am sure that any of them," and with that, she inclined her head towards the ornately-decorated frames filled with long-deceased former Headmasters and Headmistresses, "will agree with me that life is not long enough to stay unhappy, regardless of which greater good you choose to do it for."

The brunette slowly shook her head before she blinked up to look at the Headmistress of Hogwarts, the woman she trusted not to judge no matter the circumstances. "I don't know how to get through this, Minerva. I've been with Ron since my eighteenth, and I feel like I don't know how to live with him not by my side. I've never had an issue whatsoever with independence, and I'm over forty - I'm not certain I will go on and find someone else when this marriage is over. I'm not sure I'll feel the need to do so, and I don't know what that makes of me exactly. Please, tell me how I have to handle this."

Minerva sighed. "If you're not happy and haven't been for several years, my dear, it is time you tell Ronald, as clearly as possible, and ensure that he understands the implications. There's no use to acting like it isn't there, because it will end with you resenting him in all the ways you shouldn't when you have two wonderful children who have to be able to rely on both of their parents. Don't see them as the reason you stay and let your life pass by, though. Believe me when I say it won't help Rose nor Hugo in the end, if it comes with the price of their mother's unhappiness."

A sigh spilled forth again from the brunette, and she felt the unbearable need to fall in a well-meant embrace that would give her the emotional strength to face the demons in her head and charge in with a desire to be happy rather than let the situation she was in get the best of her. Minerva's unusual perceptiveness didn't fail her when she noted the look in the younger woman's eyes, as well as the way she behaved, and she invited the brunette into a hug that she reserved only for those the Headmistress felt a genuine connection with like Hermione.

Hermione pushed her nose into the Headmistress' emerald robes, only to inhale the unique smell of old parchments, of orchids, of sandalwood, maybe earl grey. She knew that she would be alright, as long as Minerva was with her somehow, she thought, and it was as if Minerva McGonagall had caught her thoughts. "I'll be here no matter what happens."

In that moment, as she and Minerva held on tightly, she finally let go of Ron emotionally. Neither Minerva nor Hermione, however, would have imagined that that was also the exact moment Hermione's heart nearly inevitably became Minerva's... _but that's another story._


End file.
